Snapchat’s failure to protect kids revealed in New Mexico lawsuit

Snapchat failed to act on “rampant” reports of child grooming, sextortion and other dangers to minors on its platform, according to a newly unredacted complaint against the company filed by New Mexico’s attorney general.

Attorney General Raúl Torrez filed the original complaint on Sept. 4, but internal messages and other details were heavily redacted. Tuesday’s filing unveils internal messages among Snap Inc. employees and executives that provide “further confirmation that Snapchat’s harmful design features create an environment that fosters sextortion, sexual abuse and unwanted contact from adults to minors,” Torrez said in a news release.

For instance, former trust and safety employees complained there was “pushback” from management when they tried to add safety mechanisms, according to the lawsuit. Employees also noted that user reports on grooming and sextortion — persuading a person to send explicit photos online and then threatening to make the images public unless the victim pays money or engages in sexual favors — were falling through the cracks. At one point, an account remained active despite 75 reports against it over mentions of “nudes, minors and extortion.”

Snap said in a statement that its platform was designed “with built-in safety guardrails” and that the company made “deliberate design choices to make it difficult for strangers to discover minors on our service.”

“We continue to evolve our safety mechanisms and policies, from leveraging advanced technology to detect and block certain activity, to prohibiting friending from suspicious accounts, to working alongside law enforcement and government agencies, among so much more,” the company said.

According to the lawsuit, Snap was well aware, but failed to warn parents, young users and the public that “sextortion was a rampant, ‘massive,’ and ‘incredibly concerning issue’ on Snapchat.”

A November 2022 internal email from a trust and safety employee says Snapchat was getting “around 10,000” user reports of sextortion each month.

“If this is correct, we have an incredibly concerning issue on our hands, in my humble opinion,” the email continues.

Another employee replied that it’s worth noting that the number likely represents a “small fraction of this abuse,” since users may be embarrassed and because sextortion is “not easy to categorize” when trying to report it on the site.

Torrez filed the lawsuit against Santa Monica, California-based Snap Inc. in state court in Santa Fe. In addition to sexual abuse, the lawsuit claims the company also openly promotes child trafficking and the sale of illicit drugs and guns.

—Barbara Ortutay, AP Technology Writer

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